


The Road Home

by meeshiefeet



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5226563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meeshiefeet/pseuds/meeshiefeet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl makes his way back to Alexandria, back to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road Home

**Author's Note:**

> Picks up from the end Episode 6.06 "Always Accountable" so please do not read if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled.
> 
> I own nothing.

**A/N:** Liddy wanted a bedtime story, so I started this one last night, and then couldn't stop. Thank you to Liddy and Emily for beta-reading!

* * *

 

The engine rumbled with a steady rhythm as they made their way back to Alexandria, the sound of it sputtering as they stopped and idled about a quarter mile shy of the gate, taking in the sight before them. Walkers. Hundreds. Maybe a thousand. Daryl turned to the others, who nodded. He turned the truck around and laid on the horn.

It didn't take long. A peek in the side mirror showed the undead streaming toward them, tripping over each other to get to the beckoning racket. Daryl slowly lifted his foot off the brake, leading the pack down the road, away from the walls.

"Think you two can take it from here?" Daryl asked, eyeing the mirror, looking back toward the settlement.

"Don't," Sasha replied. "It's suicide."

"Nah. They'll follow you. Might get a coupla stragglers, but nothin' I can't handle."

"Got your back," Abe said, patting the RPG propped against the door. "I'll fire one off the other way after you run."

Daryl nodded a thank you to him and turned to Sasha.

"Fine," Sasha said between gritted teeth. "You better make it."

She took the wheel and Daryl threw the door open, rolling as he hit the ground. His arm hurt like hell when it took the force of his weight, but the pain only made him more determined. He needed to get back to her. To stop ignoring what needed to be said. To be the person she deserved.

The ground shook beneath him as dark smoke billowed toward the sky. Abe had given him his opportunity, and he snatched it up as fast as his legs would carry him, ducking through the thicker areas of trees while the crowd of walkers was drawn away from him. It would take a few minutes for the walkers to clear the walls from the far side of town, but he didn't care. He widened his circle slightly and continued running.

His knife penetrated the skull of one walker, then a second, as he approached the metal walls. He'd moved around a lot in his life, even before the turn, but he'd only just started thinking of those places in a new light at the prison. Not merely shelter from the elements. Not a safety net, with tall fences keeping out some dangers while others slept a few steps away. Not a cavernous tomb, waiting silently, patiently, for the day he gasped his last breath. Once he'd found her, fighting with everything she had to hold on, it all changed. He was with her, and she was home.

"Open the gate!" Spencer's voice cut through the air, cut into Daryl's chest as he realized how close he was to her. Metal clanged and the inner wall shifted, revealing Michonne and a man he'd seen around, but couldn't name. He saw the flicker of emotion on Michonne's face, how his appearance in their midst lifted some invisible weight from her shoulders. She opened the outer gate and stepped aside, allowing him to finally stop running when she slammed it closed behind him again. A quick slash of her katana and the walker on the other side fell into a heap, mirroring Daryl's collapse on the pavement inside as he fought to regain his breath.

A small crowd gathered before he could speak. Rick, Deanna, Father Gabriel. Rosita.

"He's fine. In the truck. Sasha, too," he managed between gasps, finding his feet with the help of Rick and Michonne. Just past the group, he spotted Tobin and another man, staring at him. A small wagon loaded with corpses sat beside them. All around him, faces were ashen. Streets were stained red. His legs went out from under him as the full scale of what happened inside the walls began to sink in.

"Carol?"

It wasn't a question. It was a plea. A prayer.

"She's okay. She's the reason this place is still standing," Rick reassured him, quietly adding, "She could use some company right now."

Daryl understood. She could fight it, but it was only a matter of time before her own carefully constructed walls could no longer stand. Before she'd need more than a roof to keep her safe from the gathering storm. She needed to be found again, but this time only she could do it. The best he could do was be there to pick up the pieces afterward. To show her that he could be her home, too.

He found her sitting at the dining room table, knuckles white from gripping the edges, staring out the side window at the billowing smoke. Sketches lay scattered before her. Maps she'd drawn of the town. The sound of her sharp intake of breath only made him move faster. Her chair hit the floor behind her as she leapt up. Her body collided with his and they held on, clinging to each other tightly. Sinking to their knees. He pulled back and searched her face, taking in every feature, drowning in the tears in her eyes. Her arms tightened around him and she buried her face in his neck, and he felt it again, just like he had every other time they'd found each other. He was safe. He was home.

Minutes passed before they finally shifted, settling themselves on the floor next to each other. She gingerly touched his arm, his temple. Each spot where his skin bore the marks of his time outside the walls. He took her hand gently, stopping her, leading her focus to his face instead.

"What happened here?" he asked.

Her eyes shifted, the soft concern turning to cold steel as she remembered.

"Wolves. They rammed a truck into the wall, made it inside, brought the walkers after them. It was bad."

"How many?" he asked.

"There were at least twenty of them," she answered.

He shook his head. "No. I meant how many of 'em did you have to kill?"

She looked toward the window, setting her jaw tight, body tensing next to his.

"A few."

They’d been here before, when they sat under a tree in the dark. He’d asked silently. She’d refused to talk about it. Couldn’t bring herself to. He had backed off, knowing it wasn’t the time to push. They’d done it all over again in Atlanta, standing at a window, trying to forget the way things were before their pasts ate them up from the inside. He thought it was enough, but he was wrong. That was clear now. He paused and considered his next words carefully.

"You never told me what happened. With the girls."

She didn't respond. He watched her, her chest barely moving, barely allowing air to fill her lungs. He touched her shoulder and she shrunk away from him.

" _It was worse than that_ … that's all you said," he reminded her quietly. "How was it worse?"

Still she didn't move, maintaining her steady reticence.

"Alright," he said. "You don't have to tell me. But I know you. You need to let it out. Somehow, in some way, you do."

"I can't."

"You will. Whether it's here with me, or later, when you're forced into it. When your mind won't let you run anymore. You will."

She turned toward him again, the steel gone from her eyes, leaving behind the hint of the turmoil that lay beneath the surface.

"I'm afraid," she said.

He took her hand and held it with both of his.

"I know."

"If I-"

Her voice caught in her throat and she took a fortifying breath.

"If I go there, what happens if I can't find my way back?" she asked.

"Then I'll follow you," he said. "I'll stay right there as long as it takes for you to figure out where you're going. And then I'll go there, too."

"And where is that? Off the deep end? To hell? Where?"

He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him, and kissed her forehead.

"Home. Wherever we end up, as long as we're together, we're home."


End file.
